Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.07.2015, Síða 14

PLEASED TO MEAT YOU!
Kraum - Aðalstræti 10, Reykjavík - kraum.is
i c e l a n d i c d e s i g n
our interview with head chef Gísli,
they have done some serious research
to reinterpret Icelandic food heritage
authentically. The result is an original
restaurant which is still as Icelandic as
it gets. Enjoy some cured arctic char
appetizers, caramelized whey des-
serts, or whole cod heads with sugar
kelp for main course. An inspiring lo-
calized stab at New Nordic cuisine.
Honourable mention: Apótek
Restaurant
2014: K-bar
2013: Bergsson Mathús
2012: Forréttabarinn
2011: Sjávargrillið
2010: Noodle Station
2009: Saffran
Best Cheap Meal
K-bar
—
Laugavegur 74
Korean-inflected gastropub K-bar
offers an unbeatable Beer + Korean
Fried Chicken happy hour combo for
990 ISK. If Korean chicken isn’t your
style then they also offer a Beer + Cal-
amari combo (1290 ISK) and a Beer +
Cauliflower combo (1290 ISK). The 2
for 1 takeaway deal at Bergsson was a
close contender but we’re suckers for
cheap alcohol and sweet-and-spicy
Korean food.
Honourable mention: Bergsson
2014: 10-11 after 14:00
2013: “Sub of the month” at Subway
2012: Íslenski barinn
2011: Noodle Station
2010: “Sub of the month” at Subway
Best Seafood
Fiskfélagið (The Fish
Company)
—
Vesturgata 2a
There’s a lot of competition for good
seafood in Reykjavík but Fiskfélagið
got our panellists the most excited
despite being far from exclusively
fish-oriented. The menu is as inter-
national as it gets and you can choose
between set menus Around the World
and Around Iceland. Neither menu
will leave fish fans disappointed (un-
less they’re the Troy McClure kind)
and everything has been given the mo-
lecular gastronomy spin (expect little
jellies, crumbles, sand, purées, and
globes around your fish). Fiskfélagið is
dependable, professional, playful, and
adventurous and it respects its core
ingredient.
Honourable mention: Fish Market
2014: Fiskfélagið
2013: Fiskfélagið
2012: Fiskfélagið
2011: Við Tjörnina
2010: Fiskfélagið
Best Brunch
Slippbarinn
—
Mýrargata 2-8
This was a tough one and this cat-
egory could be divided in two. For a
brunch menu, Coocoo’s Nest is still
one of our favorites, but if it’s a brunch
buffet you want then Slippbarinn has
to be the best in town. As one of the
judges said: “It’s clean and whole-
some ingredients, well presented, and
with plenty of variety.” He wasn’t kid-
ding with the variety: at Slippbarinn
you’ll find fluffy eggs, thick slices of
bacon, waffles with dulce de leche,
shots of green mystery juice, cured
fish, serrano hams, Spanish flatbread
with salad and pomegranates, cakes,
corn dogs dusted with confectioner’s
sugar, pared wedges of pink grape-
fruit, creamy greek yoghurt, roasted
veggies, and more. The Slippbarinn
brunch is far from your standard con-
tinental hotel breakfast buffet and for
something that will leave you full for
the rest of the day, 3190 ISK is not a
bad deal.
Honourable mention: Coocoo’s
Nest
2014: Coocoo’s Nest
2013: Vox
2012: Vox
2011: Vox
2010: Nítjánda
2009: Vox
Best Place To Go With A
Group Of Friends
Tapasbarinn (Tapas Bar)
—
Vesturgata 3b
Tapas is made for groups of friends. It’s
a chaotic meal made up of many small
dishes, and people can come and go
without worrying about disrupting the
proceedings. It’s encouraged to share
and no one is expecting you to keep your
voice down. It’s part of that grand Medi-
terranean tradition in which a night out
drinking is not complete unless you’re
eating the whole time (something Ice-
landers are still figuring out). As one
judge said: “The tables are long and the
selection is varied, so everyone can fit in
and find something they like. And they
nail the atmosphere—it’s crowded and
boisterous the way it should be.”
Honourable mention: Bunk Bar
2014: KEX
2013: KEX
2012: Tapas Bar
2011: Tapas Bar
2010: Tapas Bar
Best Lunch
Ostabúðin á Skólavörðustíg
—
Skólavörðustígur 8
Ostabúðin is a delicatessen and cheese
shop which has been staging a semi-
secret lunch restaurant in the basement
for years. This year they have expanded
next door and setup a whole separate
restaurant including dinner service.
Their lunch deal is still one of the best in
the city, featuring simple food made with
real ingredients and likely taking advan-
tage of some gourmet surplus from the
store. “I always get half a soup portion
and half a main course and that lasts me
the whole day. Filling and with quality
ingredients,” is what one our judges had
to say. Honourable mention: Prikið
lunch offer
2014: Bergsson Mathús
2013: Ostabúðin
Best Late Night Bite
Chicken wings at Dirty
Burger & Ribs
—
Miklabraut & Austurstræti 8-10
The hangover meal is overrated: ev-
ery real booze hound knows that it’s
the meal you eat at tail end of your
night out which matters. Most of the
beer has left your body and you’re left
with a bloated and salt-deprived body
demanding solid food. You might not
remember it and somewhere in the
back of your head you are aware that
your next run-in with food will be
that phone call to Dominos from the
bathroom floor the next day—but right
in that moment, all you want to do is
smear the grub all over your body like
a hyena to fuel your walk home.
In 2015, the Reykjavík late night
grub scene was joined by Dirty Burger
& Ribs (open until 6am on Friday and
Saturday nights at their Austurstræti
location). We love the wings, but if our
feathered friends aren’t your forte,
then they also make a mean veggie
burger and about their ribs our food
editor had this to say: “The ribs were
dripping off the bone like a gaggle of
Nazis spooning on top of the Ark of the
Covenant and the meaty fibres put up
less resistance than Norway.”
Honourable mention: Belgian waf-
fle with cream at Vöffluvagninn
2014: Nonnabiti
2013: Nonnabiti
Best Must-Try Dining
Experience
Shrimp Pyramid at Jómfrúin
—
Lækjargata 4
This is the one category where we’ve
had no repeats from year-to-year, be-
cause there are just so many Must-Try
Dining Experiences in Reykjavík! As
fun as the sheep heads and whale ke-
bab may be, we wanted to highlight
something a little more elegant this
time around.
Jómfrúin is a place which wears its
colonial past proudly: the focus is on
Danish open-faced sandwiches (smør-
rebrød). But the place is as Icelandic as
it gets and walking into Jómfrúin you
are immediately transported to 1985
Reykjavík. The place attracts a slightly
older, upper-middle-class crowd (al-
though they aren’t afraid to tie off a
few Danish schnapps on a Saturday
afternoon if the mood takes them). We
recommend the honest-to-god pyra-
mid of shrimp served on a sliver of
bread, but really you can’t go wrong at
Jómfrúin. The “Hangover” roast beef
on rye with tomatoes, horseradish,
and a fried egg is also delicious. They
open up the place in the back in the
summer—make sure to grab a seat in
the sun while you can.
Honourable mention: Texasborgari
(for the pure kitschy horror of it
all)
2014: Food section at Kolaportið
2013: Icelandic food at Kaffi Loki
2012: Icelandic Home-Style Food
at Mamma Steina
2011: The svið at Fljótt og Gott, BSÍ
2010: Moby Dick on a Stick at
Sægreifinn
2009: Bæjarins Beztu
Best Place For A
Fancy Meal
Dill
—
Hverfisgata 12
We give it to Dill the second year in
a row. Our panel agonized over this
one but the consensus was that while
Iceland has a lot of great upmarket
restaurants, they normally are more
“business-casual” in approach. If
you want true fine dining with ambi-
tion to match then it’s a much smaller
pool. Dill doesn’t just provide starched
white napkins, it is also one of the
most imaginative and innovative res-
taurants in Iceland and an established
presence in the New Nordic food com-
munity. As one of our experts said:
“Dill is constantly moving forward,
constantly exploring new things and
keeping them local and seasonal.”
Dill would be a Michelin star res-
14 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 9 — 2015
Best Of Reykjavík